Zeynep Gunay

Following the secondments in Casablanca, Santiago and Sarajevo, the final secondment has taken place in Palermo, Sicily. Sicily is a palimpsest of multi-scalar encapsulation of conflict: a strategic crossroad in the middle of the Mediterranean and a gate to flowing borderscape reclaiming inside and outside: refugees as new migrants, religion & violence, walls, limits & human rights, those of which can be clustered within the ‘body’ itself, as so the body politics. The research tracks the prints and traces of bodily mnemonics and their intersectionality and ephemerality: A world ‘official’ heritage of islamic, arab vernacular in a strong christian compound of orthodox byzantine vs vatican catholism, while in complete metamorphosis through the grassroot never-ending formation of ‘nomad’ heritage within the new coexistence of old migrants and new refugees under the shadow of Etna, a gaze into the radicalisation of heritage through the heritageisation of spatial violence and the activism within anti-mafia movements. Sicily is also a key platform to explore 21st century within the project's chronological trajectory as opening the path for critical discussion on consumerism, heritageisation or a dive into the bodily mnemonics. The focus of exploration is through discovering, learning and tracing the conflict heritage by ethnographic and archival work. Apart from in-depth research through textual and visual archives, oral testimonies and scholarly work, the research is built upon interviews and on-site documentation in the understanding and mapping of alternative narratives.